Algorithm Wars, Linked Games & Claude
5 in 5 - Brave & Heart HeartBeat #202 ❤️
This week we’re talking Instagram trying to fill TikTok’s shoes, as usual, introducing you to your new bestie, Claude, and playing games on LinkedIn.
Plus, teachers are taking on phones in schools and we’re trying to help you take on your emails.
Let’s get into it.
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#1 - Instagram Jumps In To Fill The Void
We’re facing a potential algorithm void, who’s going to jump in to fill it? Instagram, of course.
With TikTok having been given their marching orders in the US unless they sell to an American company, Instagram have jumped at the opportunity to tell us about changes they’re making to their algorithm.
They posted that they would be “correcting” their previous approach to recommending content, which favoured accounts with more followers and people who repost other content to give more weight to original creators, especially on Reels.
You know, Reels, their TikTok copy.
As we discussed last week, it’s not only entertainment that’s at risk if TikTok leaves the US – hundreds of thousands of businesses rely on TikTok’s unique algorithmic power to propel them into the phones of consumers across the globe.
If they want to have backup by this winter to ensure they don’t see their revenue drop off a cliff they’re going to be searching for an alternative place to start building up an audience now – and Instagram are touting themselves as the answer at just the right time.
The battle for TikTok’s creators begin…
#2 – Meet Claude
The Claude AI model finally comes to iOS, where it will hopefully be introduced to a much wider audience.
Claude was launched just after ChatGPT in March 2023, and despite OpenAI getting most of the hype, Claude’s AI models launched by company Anthropic have actually been described as better than ChatGPT.
Tech geeks (shout out to our fellows) have carried out tests and come to the conclusion that Claude 3, the latest iteration, is one of the most capable and most human AI models, with the ability to rationalize to a certain extent, and is aware of its own limitations and able to speculate.
So how come you’ve never heard of it?
As OpenAI mostly stole the stage, all other options were relegated to being seen as alternatives, and there they have stayed, but the launch of Claude’s iOS app has made the news across tech news outlets and brought the name back into the limelight.
They’re stil behind the trend, ChatGPT and Google’s AI offerings have been available on apps for a while now, but better late than never.
#3 - LinkedIn Introduces Games
When we ask you what LinkedIn is for, the answer has probably changed in the last few years.
The original answer would have been networking, with the ideal uses of LinkedIn being looking for new jobs and finding new talent as a recruiter by building your employer and employee brands respectively.
More recently, the answer may be writing long posts about how great you are with philosophical musings on life and anecdotes of dubious truthfulness or sharing posts on how to use AI.
Now, LinkedIn have branched out, and you can add a new answer… playing games?
LinkedIn have launched three games, each of which you will be able to play once a day, then check where you are on the leaderboard and who in your network is playing.
You may well be confused about what this has to do with LinkedIn, we certainly are, but according to The Verge their decision isn’t surprising.
Digital content businesses are struggling to make money with ad revenue right now, and offering gaming content is a way to capture new users and engage older ones with the ploy of eventually getting them to spend some money.
The games are pretty original at least.
There’s Pinpoint, a word association game, Crossclimb, a game that mixes trivia and wordplay, and Queens, which is Soduko with symbols instead of numbers.
More entertaining than reading yet another humble brag we suppose…
#4 - Lock Up Your Phones
Several states in the US are pushing through blanket bans on phones in schools, and it seems like the scientific proof agrees with the Americans here (for once…) that smartphones in school are bad news.
According to a study by Common Sense Media, a nonprofit designed to educate parents on all things tech, 97% of students are on their phones during school hours, and they don’t always wait til they’re outside the classroom to check on their socials.
Studies have shown that kids who spend less of their school time on their phones get better test scores, and that even students who aren’t on their own phones are still distracted when their peers use phones in class.
A study by the National Institute of Health also suggests that children without phones have a better grasp of the material and experience less anxiety, and when phones were banned in schools in Norway a recent analysis by their public health institute showed that the mental health and grades of girls in particular noticeably improved.
So phones in school is bad, get rid. Great. Sorted.
Well, as always, making the rules is the easy part, enforcing them is a different question.
Many schools have gone down the route of taking phones away at the beginning of lessons and giving them back at the end, but apparently this can cause students to binge content they’ve missed out on during their breaks, meaning they’re not talking to each other anymore.
Others have gone more hardline by locking phones in magnetic pouches all day – the same magnetic pouches you may have seen before at concerts, shows or museums – which keep your phone out of action until someone unlocks it for you.
Big bonus points for this method, which has apparently reduced cyber bulling in schools that enforce it.
Apparently though, some parents are mad that they can’t get in touch with their kids though, so I guess you can’t please everyone.
#5 - Say Goodbye To Email Overwhelm
Or at least try to…
We’re sure that anyone who works in a job where they receive or send emails, puts “emails” high up on their list of the most annoying things about their day, but did you know they can also actually be bad for you?
Being “always on”, unable to work deeply or unplug for proper rest “creates invisible stress for your mind and body” according to digital wellbeing expert Anastasia Dedyukhina who says that we spend an average of only 47 seconds paying attention to one screen before switching tasks – more often than not, because of an email.
Plus, after only 20 minutes of interrupted performance your cortisol levels – the physical effect of stress – go up, and constantly operating in stress mode is bad for your mind, body, and a one-way ticket to burnout town.
So what can we do?
1 – Limit the time you spend on emails. You can do this by using the “email batching” method, only checking emails at a certain time during the day, but apparently the most effective way to avoid email stress is spending less time on them altogether. Apps like RescueTime exist that help you track how long you spend on emails, and allow you to take steps to reduce that time.
2 – Close your inbox. If you can see that you’ve got emails coming in, even if you’re not opening them, they’re distracting you. Something called the “Zeigarnik effect” states that we remember unfinished tasks better than finished ones – if your brain knows there’s a task waiting in your inbox, your mind will allocate some mental energy to it.
3 – Boundaries. The implicit expectation of receiving an email outside of work hours has been proven to increase stress, even if you’re not answering. Try putting an out-of-office message for your non-working hours even when you’re not on vacation to manage expectations and ensure people know you’re not available.
4 – Keep mornings email free. Now that we have emails on all devices it can be easy to check them as soon as you wake up, but by doing so you fast-track yourself right into the working day, and according to our digital wellness expert, immediately increase the pace of your day from the get-go. Assuming you’re using an iPhone, try playing around with the focus settings – set evening through to morning as “personal” and cut off your emails.
We’ll try them out and get back to you! Unless we’re feeling too zen to even bother…
Brave & Heart over and out.
Bonus
Zuck’s New Look
Mark Zuckerberg is trying to pull the wool over our eyes about his true identity as a malevolent cyborg by growing a “cool” beard and changing up his look.
No longer following the Steve Jobs school of dressing the same all the time, he’s been seen fawning over expensive watches, wearing garish shirts at millionaires weddings, and trying out shearling jackets.
To find out more on how you can retain your top talent, or how we can help you with digital solutions to your business and marketing challenges, check out our case studies.